


Found

by Nalyd



Category: Original Work
Genre: Allegory, Fantasy, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:27:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22837033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nalyd/pseuds/Nalyd
Summary: Crahe is a member of a tunnel-dwelling community known as Sosti, established in time immemorial with the blessing of the Core, an unseen entity, of absolute importance to the society, whose melodies and tunes are felt all throughout the rocky walls, ceilings and floors of the settlement. All that there is to explore is the different whims and twists of the Core's symphony, but one day Crahe happens upon a new discovery...





	Found

Crahe had always had a very inquisitive mind. The years of his infancy were spent endlessly wandering the roads of Sosti, always looking for new tunnels to explore, for new tunes to assimilate. Even now, as he hurriedly made his way towards the conclave, his legs moving with the Core’s endless rhythm, he had to resist exploring every new gap in the wall he sensed.

He shook his head and pressed on, focusing back on his destination. Arriving late always resulted in a less pleasurable session. As he took a left, scurrying into a much wider tunnel, he reached out and let his hand glide across the hard wall. He felt the Core’s vibrations more clearly, its melody reverberating through the entirety of Sosti, the brittle walls, floors and ceilings spreading and changing it as they saw fit. Sometimes they lowered its pitch and sometimes the opposite was true, sometimes its pace inexplicably quickened and yet, at times, it could also slow. Crahe’s favorite was the calm, rumbling tune he could hear sometimes as he returned home, near Sosti's outskirts.

Just ahead of him, another figure emerged from a side tunnel, bringing him back to the present.

“Seems like I'm not the only one late, this time!” a familiar voice chimed.

“Tolap!” he called with a laugh, quickening his pace to catch up.

“So why are you late today?” Tolap asked as Crahe reached her, continuing their march towards the conclave, their feet hitting the ground in tune with the Core.

He shrugged. “There was a nice tune near me, I stopped for a while with a few others.”

She nodded: “that's as good of an excuse as I've got.”

The two fell silent as they reached the designated opening. They went in, ducking not to hit their head on the ceiling.

As they entered the massive room, the tune shifted, becoming slower, heavier. The vibrations lazily echoed across the crowded room, waiting.

The two stretched into their full height, something they could rarely do in the tunnels of Sosti without fear of hitting the rocky ceiling. A few hundred others had already done the same.

“Well, at least we didn't miss the beginning,” Tolap murmured.

Crahe leaned towards him to reply but fell silent as a lone voice rose above the crowd’s whispers.

“For this gathering,” it declared, silencing all but the Core’s indifferent hum, “I, Phi, will lead us in tune. Take place,” it demanded.

The crowd moved, forming circles around a lone figure in the middle of the room, which Tolap identified as the source of the voice.

Phi brought her arms across her chest and stilled. The crowd followed.

For a few moments, only the Core’s beating melody could be heard. Then, as the walls vibrated again, Phi let forth a single low note. The others were quick to follow, and a loud buzz emanated from the crowd as one.

As the hum continued, the Core’s tune shifted, quickening its pace and increasing its tune. Phi kept the buzz going for a few more beats, then silenced it with a single clap.

The crowd stood still, the walls all around them beating with palpable energy.

Phi lifted her bare arms toward the high ceiling, and the crowd followed: “We hear the Core!” she shouted.

“We hear the Core!” a chorus of voices bellowed in return.

“We  _ feel _ the Core!” Phi continued.

“We feel the Core!” the chorus followed.

Phi took in a long breath and stretched her limbs outward, expanding in every direction. The moment everyone had followed, she yelled once more: “We! Are! The Core!”

“We are the Core!” the conclave roared, the invocation echoing off the beating walls.

Phi threw her head back and intoned a single high note, swiftly joined by hundreds of others.

The hum grew louder and louder, echoing off the walls as its tune quickened. The Core’s rhythm followed, the vibrations becoming faster and faster.

Phi lead the conclave with delicate artistry, Crahe thought, slowing his hum as she demanded. As the conclave’s buzz flowed and changed, so too did the Core’s rhythm, at times following, at times leading the chant, as the two grew louder and louder in a never-ending dance that boomed and whispered across the room. It was the last thought that crossed his mind before he lost himself in the tune completely.

///

“Phi always makes for an excellent gathering, doesn't she?” Tolap asked seemingly an eternity later.

He nodded as the two marched back home after their meal, their feet hitting the ground in unison.

Soon they arrived at the tunnel that led to Talop’s home.

“See you tomorrow!” she chimed as she turned away.

“Don't be late!” he teased back.

He was still for a few moments, feeling the Core’s relaxing thrum all around, then began marching again, humming along.

A high-pitched tune stopped him in his tracks.

To his left, the tune escaped a tall, thin entrance, starkly contrasting the surrounding rhythm.

Crahe considered the tunnel, then shrugged. He had time to spare. Intrigued, he followed the tune. As he walked through the tunnel, he let his hands glide on the ceiling, feeling the Core’s vibrations.

Suddenly, he stopped. The surface just above him felt strange. He tried knocking on it.

It felt thinner than the rest of the ceiling. Crahe stretched upwards and pushed against the ceiling. To his surprise, a small section of it crumbled to the floor.

Stunned, he examined the small opening he’d created. There was only one way of telling what was beyond it. After making sure no one was around, he took to expanding the crack in the ceiling, humming along to the fast-paced tune.

In no time, he opened a hole wide enough to crawl through. 

His hands rasped around in search of a solid support for his weight, then slowly lifted him up and through the hole.

He looked around, the Core’s rhythm and his breathing the only exception to the eery stillness. He was in a small, bare room. Glancing down, he noticed the material around the hole was a slightly different color than the rest of the floor, in addition to being a near-perfect square. Crahe got a closer look at the strange material. Had the entrance been sealed? By who? And why?

Standing back up, he noticed a passage in the wall. He cautiously approached it and saw that it led upwards. Glancing back at the hole in the ground, he entered the little tunnel.

The road became steeper and steeper, and he had to duck abnormally low not to bump the ceiling. Noticing the end of the tunnel, he braced himself for what he'd find outside.

He found himself in a room identical to the first one, only this one had several side entrances. He looked around, confused. Who had built these? What was their purpose? The only audible answer was the Core’s soft hum.

He took a deep breath, then chose an entrance at random.

Another identical room.

He licked his lips. This one had a passage in the floor too. He followed it and ended up in a room not unlike the first one.

He walked towards the middle of it and leaned down. There was a squared section of the floor with a darker color.

_ So there were multiple entrances to this level?  _ he thought. The Core sang its endless song, indifferent to his questions.

Crahe went back to the upper floor. After peeking around a few rooms, he decided to get to the bottom of the situation.

_ Surely these rooms can't go on forever,  _ he thought, choosing a direction at random and going through room after room.

After what seemed like an eternity, he arrived at a room with an upwards exit.

“Ah-hah!” he exclaimed with a triumphant smile. “You can't play these tricks forever,” he whispered, moving towards the slope.

As his foot came down on it, the Core skipped a beat.

Crahe froze, aghast. 

“What was that?” he muttered.

The Core continued its musical masterpiece, gleefully unaware of the question.

He anxiously stared at the walls, trying to make sense of what had happened. The Core didn't skip. Ever. It was continuous and never-ending.

He lifted his foot off the ground, then gently landed it past the doorway. Nothing happened. He did the same with the other foot. The Core ignored him.

_ I didn't just imagine it, did I?  _

He tentatively made his way up, listening for any other irregularities.

He found himself in yet another identical room and laughed, unsurprised: “Oh no you don't, I'm getting to the bottom of this!”

As he wandered around the newest floor, he noticed something peculiar about the Core’s rhythm. It didn't skip anymore, but instead changed tune and pitch very rapidly, as if it were…? He tried to ignore it, but the screeches and moans tugged at his mind, prodding him to go back.

After a few minutes of darting from room to room, it happened.

The Core went silent.

Crahe stopped dead in his tracks, opening and closing his mouth as if gasping for air, eyes darting left and right like a hunted animal. The stony silence did not reply.

He stood there, trying not to lose himself in the nothingness that mercilessly surrounded him, taunted him, took his breath away. He lost the feeling of his limbs and fell on his knees. The loud  _ thump  _ he made as he hit sent a jolt through his body. He shook his head, then hit the floor with his hands, making another flat sound. He pounded against the floor again and again, the sound of his hands against the rocky material echoing across the room. With a shaky voice, he started humming, trying to go along with the improvised beat.

He couldn’t say for sure how long he spent like that, but it began to work: he calmed down, found his footing, and started pounding on the walls instead. And so he moved, from room to room, pounding against the hard surface and humming to himself.

The Core did not like that.

As he was humming his melody, a powerful, quick tune came at him from all sides. Disoriented, Crahe stopped playing. And so the Core ceased as well. Aghast, he started again, and again the Core hit him with a completely different melody. He tried to adapt to the tune, but it changed to a much slower one. He tried again, and again it shifted. Panicking, he began to run, pounding against the walls and moaning in an effort to keep up. The two melodies flowed and changed together in a clumsy dance, but this time it was clear who was leading.

And so Crahe ran, and so he struggled against the Core’s will, fleeing it but with nowhere to go. His hands got shakier, his humming uneven. 

“You can’t beat me!” he shrieked in defiance, “I  _ am  _ the Core!”

But the Core’s cacophony grew and overpowered him, strangled him, made him go insane. There was no escape, the Core was everything and everywhere.

“Enough! Enough!” he finally pleaded, falling to the floor. “I can’t take it anymore! You win!”

Silence enveloped him, its chill grasp almost a welcome feel. In the distance, he heard a familiar tune. He coughed, getting to his knees, and half-ran, half-shambled towards the noise, smacking the walls with his hands as he passed.

He finally made it to the downward leading tunnel the tune was coming from. He threw himself at it, landing in front of the opening. He lay still, taking in the music as if it were water in after days of dehydration. The Core coddled him as a mother would her infant, rewarding Crahe for coming to his senses.

Finally, he stood, staring onward. “This takes me back to Sosti, right?” he asked, his voice cracking. A few high-pitched vibrations seemed to confirm his answer.

He lowered his head. “Great,” he whispered glancing back before leaving, “I won’t-” He stopped. There was another tunnel leading upward.

And there was  _ light  _ coming down from it.

Crahe blinked, turned back at the Core, and back again. “Say,” he said, “would it be a problem if I… checked to see where that light is coming from?”

The Core denied his request.

“That’s fine, I understand,” he said, lifting his arms. “Let’s just go home, shall we?”

Yes, the Core liked this very much.

Crahe smiled and walked forward.

Then he turned around. And ran.

He’d only gotten a few strides in when the Core showed its full might, throwing deafening  _ BOOM _ s at him from all directions. He covered his ears and ran, falling forward but making it to the tunnel. As he scrambled upward, the cage he’d shut himself into bombarded him at close distance, threatening to destroy him if he did not quit this nonsense immediately. But he ran towards the light, away from the Core, away from the madness, away from the world. And then he made it. One moment he was fleeing for his life, the following he was outside.

Crahe fell to his knees, looking downward. Behind him, the opening tried calling for him. He stared intently at the green, thread-like substance at his feet. He ran his hand through it, feeling its bizarre texture. He stumbled forward, fleeing the Core’s tempting tune and focusing solely on his new discovery and humming. Then he came upon a flat, blue substance. He touched it, only to pull back his hand in shock as it went through. He went a little closer to it, and was aghast to see someone else look up at him from it. “Ah! Sorry, I didn’t… see you?” he started, but then noticed that the substance was mimicking his movements. He leaned in closer to it, his left hand regularly beating against his side. Indeed, the substance appeared to reflect what was in front of it. But then, why would there not be a ceiling behind h-

Crahe turned to face upward with a shriek.

Blue.

Endless blue. 

There was no ceiling, no  _ nothing. _

It was bigger than anything he could’ve ever imagined.

And in that endless space of blue, a single entity resided, a being of light and heat, showering him and the world with its powerful presence.

_ This,  _ whatever it was, could be nothing other than the true absolute.

And it was precisely at that moment that the Core lost Crahe forever.

**Author's Note:**

> The bare outline of this story started forming in my head one day when I was on a picnic with my family in a relatively remote location in the hills. At a certain point I felt like walking around and exploring, and I did so while humming some tune in my head, I have no idea what. While I was aimlessly wandering around, with silence all around me, for some reason I wondered what it would be like to live life entirely with some sort of melody accompanying you. When I stopped humming, I also thought that the silence would be terrifying if you'd never known it before in your life, the same way nighttime is terrifying for those who have never known it in Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall". Whilst explaining the idea to a friend of mine, she read the outline of the story I had come up with (main character wanders too far from the melody, is shocked by its absence" as some sort of reinterpretation of Plato's allegory of the cave, in which the community is kept in a cave by sophists who dazzle them with mere shadows of physical objects, until someone breaks free and discovers not only that the shadows were not reality, but also that there is an outside world, which is the true reality (and is basically an allegory for philosophical enlightenment). I thought the idea was cool, so I decided to run with it. Tolap is of course just an anagram of "Plato", Crahe is vaguely reminiscent of "So-crates" and the society of Sosti + the leader known as Phi are just the word Sophists ripped apart. It is unclear whether or not the Core was engineered by Phi and her ilk, if it's just a natural phenomenon and Crahe starts to go nuts in areas in which it does not perform as expected, or if it really is some sort of sentient being, but I believe that to be besides the point. Thanks for reading, if you have any feedback or questions be sure to let me know!


End file.
